MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Council of the Syrian Tribes hopes that representatives of the Syrian National Coalition, a coalition of opposition groups, will take part in the upcoming pan-Syrian conference in order to facilitate reconciliation in the war-torn country, the council’s spokesperson, Abbas Habib, said Wednesday.
“The tribal council has assumed responsibility for doing what former UN and League of Arab States representative [Lakhdar] Brahimi failed to achieve. It’s very hard to interact with everybody, and we hope to meet with the [Syrian National] Coalition, as well. We have taken former envoy Brahimi’s role, and I hope that we will make it in Syria, with the participation of the tribal council,” Habib said at a press conference held at International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya in Moscow.
The spokesman also stressed that the conference’s goal is the “consolidation of all forces of Syrian society,” and expressed hope that the date of the conference will be agreed upon soon.
“The date will be determined after our visit to Syria’s neighboring countries and Syrian provinces,” Habib added.
The establishment of the Council of Syrian Tribes in early July was intended to consolidate different tribal efforts to put an end to the Syrian conflict and restore the peace to the country.
Over 170,000 people have been killed in the Syrian armed conflict to date, which began in March 2011. Government troops are fighting militias from different armed groups. The most active and notorious organization is the Islamic State (IS), which has declared an Islamic Caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
